Omens

I found a copy of Midnight's Children by Salman Rushdie left long-forgotten on a shelf in our spare room a couple of months ago. Now I resolve to sit down and read it (I find Rushdie a fairly intimidating writer).

Of habit I turn to the back to see how many pages there are. 463. Just before the final page a scrap of newspaper hangs out .It is dated to 1994 and has marked page 453 for goodness knows how long.

Were I a superstitious man I would go and find another copy, but here goes...